Forum - View topicReign of the Seven Spellblades (TV).
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smurky turkey
Posts: 2634 |
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So, episode 9 made me want to dream about being a student at Kimberley while also wanting to stay as far away from it as possible if it was a thing. We have killer teachers, ego tripping students and all types of nasty shit going on in the labyrinth. On the other hand, we have all types of interesting magic/phenomena, many types of creatures and even brooms/magical sports. This week we also had magical clubs, including one to try eating everything you find in the labyrinth (enjoy that leech my man).
As for the other things, seems like the tournament is heating up and the gang now have their own secret base. |
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Edjwald
 Posts: 1566 |
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Yeah, that plurality? Dichotomy? Bipolarity? Take your pick I guess. Anyway, the way this anime swings back and forth from a tale of bat$#!+ dark and crazy violence to a heart warming and enchanting tale of innocent friendship has been present from the get go. It's evident in the characters of both Nanao and Oliver as either can go from loyal and kind friend mode to blood crazed squishy killer in a heart beat. And it permeates the labyrinth itself. And it's evident in the organization behind Oliver. His followers/pseudo siblings can come across as caring, sane, rational family members or seem like cultists.
So far, for me anyway, it's been interesting rather than inconsistent. I just keep hoping that when/if we get to Katie or Guy's back stories, we're not going to find out that one of them is a traitor or sadist or whatever. |
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Edjwald
Posts: 1566 |
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Welp, no complaints about how the duel played out. If I do have any complaints about this anime, it's that I wish they'd delayed the revelation about Oliver until the end of the season. It would have made a great cliffhanger. Instead, I've sat through multiple episodes since, and instead of being able to completely process or enjoy them, part of me has been distracted by waiting to see what will develop with that shocking game changer of a plot twist.
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Gisan Otaku
Posts: 98 |
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I am defiantly glad I don't live in that world. You lose to someone that worked really hard to beat you and you get tortured and they and their family get murdered. Sounds like something from the Middle Ages and their not very noble Nobles. I cannot remember who said it but "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely".
Speaking of behaviour that sounds archaic, the McFarlane family sounds like some of the old royal families I studied in Western History. The king has lots of kids with different women and lets the kids fight it out to see which one will succeed him. Most of the 1700's & 1800's in western Europe were times of one war or another of some country's succession. English history alone is dripping with the blood of the peasants fighting in what we would call today a family squabble. A good example of that is Henry II. Watch A Lion In Winter to see what I mean. |
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smurky turkey
Posts: 2634 |
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Still watching this one, but kind of struggling with too much anime to watch. The 3 vs 3 duel was fun, though forgiving the guy who tried to get you killed by wasps that easily made me turn my head a bit. As for the kidnappings going on, that labyrinth is way too dangerous to just be a free to explore place. I get that the school does not give much of an eff about its student, but who knows how many people die in that place every year.
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15573 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Episode 14
The show at least has grown on me. Even when I start to think I am just going to lose interest for being pretty standard, it does some really more modern themes that are noticeable. Arguably it is one of the most queer friendly anime, which wasn't itself some element yuri or BL as a genre. For the record it has had Pete who at the least is magical intersex. But of this current arc focus I think that Carlos is coded as non-binary, and if I am reading correctly Tim in this episode is gay, and was not at all used as a joke. Other than apparently the gay guy is not really happy about magical seduction coming from a woman. I had also been a little afraid of this arc setting up the succubus character as a villain. A lot of succubus fiction has it roots in things like fear of female sexuality, the sort of thing is villainising women as vile tempters of men, and so they kind of often work against types of female empowerment by positioning the succubus like powers as perverse. And it really had been setting up by revealing the nature in this series as apparently being able to birth monsters from her womb, which is straight up demonisation via the figure of Lilith. So I was already thinking we are getting a terrible story along the lines of slut shaming, and demonising women who don't fit in the traditional roles of women. But I was honestly happily surprised in this episode that showed Ophelia in a positive light, as a victim of bullying of exactly the kind of demonisation I mentioned above perversion's of female reproduction, and slut shaming. It honestly wanted me to continue on this story of the girl not being allowed to embrace her own nature from discrimination, but could eventually learn to do so. Which makes it also a little sad that she still did look to go down the evil route so quickly in like one scene change being like too terrifying strong to some random bullies, and then terribly beat up the gay kid (is he dead?), us just being told she went off the deep end. Of course being reminded in the modern time she herself is violating men. It is a little hard not to see the demonisation of female sexuality here, even if I think the show was acknowledging that the sort of thing as not okay. And I don't know, I kind of have this fear like of the bury your gays trope. before this ends. Are we going to have one character representative of oppression get killed or something. |
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Gisan Otaku
Posts: 98 |
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This past weekend I had to kid sit one of the nieces and nephews. They wanted to watch the HP marathon that was on one of the cable channels. I agreed to that only if they would watch at least one of the episodes of this anime. After surviving the first movie, we watched episodes 1 & 2 of Reign. They had never seen any Japanese animation except for Pokemon. Boy, they were surprised! I think I just created two more fans. We binged watched all the episode on CR and they loved it. I think I'll continue to be the cool uncle and get them a subscription for Crunchy Roll for Christmas.
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smurky turkey
Posts: 2634 |
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Yeah, it is a great pick anime wise if they love Harry Potter. A lot of influences are there, though it is thankfully different enough to need feel like a rip-off. Today is the day of the last episode I believe, so it is sadly coming to an end.
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smurky turkey
Posts: 2634 |
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Yup, that was the final episode. It was a decent conclusion, though it was rushed at parts, which made for a few wonky transitions between scenes.
I am mixed on the anime as a whole. I love the setting, the contrast between the charming magic and the often cruel ways it is used in a school that is anything but friendly to its students. The labyrinth is fascinating and I would like to know more about several things like the clubs and the magical broom sports. There were also a few nice surprises and twists along the way. That is a lot to like, but the main problem is that it all felt a bit disconnected to me. There is almost no time taken to do some world building/establish the basics or to flesh the characters out beyond the most simple details. Oliver gets the most love seeing his mission, yet most of the other characters stay very basic and the way the group comes together feels almost forced in how quickly it goes. The arcs also kind of just happen and more than once it feels like some details were left out to hurry things up. In the end I do like it, but some parts I like a fair bit more than others and the show could have really benefitted from some calm episodes to set things up and breathe some more life into the characters. |
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Gisan Otaku
Posts: 98 |
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Smurky turkey, I do have to agree with you about not much world building or background info. I had to resort to the wiki to fill in the gaps https://reign-of-the-seven-spellblades.fandom.com/wiki/Reign_of_the_Seven_Spellblade_Wiki. Which can be dangerous if you don't want to spoil the upcoming surprises. There is a lot of information, so be forewarned.
Yes, this is the last episode. They have covered everything up to through the 3rd light novel. Whether there will be any more, I have no idea. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15573 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Episode 15 (finale)
Okay, I am kind of super iffy on the conclusion of this final arc. By the way of the story, the character who I would argue is representative victimisation of women as the objects of sex, with the characterisation reclaimed power of the character of a succubus, was beaten by a double suicide with the most visibly queer character with the show (her friend). Also throw in maybe tones of reproductive rights, and the reveal that apparently Carlos' power was I think he/they were forced to have their gonads removed when they were prepubescent? Am I the only one to think that is maybe a little shady in terms of queer representation in say what it means to make informed decisions of their body, and maybe what it wants to say about the, and women/girls(etc) to have full control of their bodies? I know that this all sounds like an overreaction where most might just see an action story where a corrupted character that was hurting people was stopped by the love of her friend. But I will push back strongly that you cannot deny that there is a huge amount of symbolism here in terms of how in its later half it focused quite a lot on queerness and sexuality, that this is exactly the sort of themes you are meant to read into beyond just narrative. And although I would be curious to hear more firsthand ideas of what all these story beats meant, I can't but think something was pretty tone deaf. Honestly, it is pretty cool that this series had the level of representation of queerness and such as it did, so I will look fondly back on parts. For the same reason I know some viewers were losing their mind on the sidetrack from the just another revenge plot. But I can't but think terms of my knowledge on the subject, it is probably indicative of certain frames of mind common in Japanese culture that are a little bit behind the West, even if a lot of Western fiction is often just as clunky in how it tries. In my personal opinion, a lot of its focus on genitals, that the fluid character has to have some weird focus on a new womb, the androgynous/non-binary character had their balls cut off, and the succubus apparently creates monsters in her womb. It is like the same thing with to my knowledge you are probably going to more get a Japanese trans-girl say that they are a "boy", because that is what their genitals are, and what their language allows in say the concept of an otokonoko. For the record I base some of this on a manga called Love Me for Who I Am, which while not perfect has a cool perspective on a Japanese idea of being more comfortable with more fetishist ideas of what is in someone's pants, rather than a character just saying how they feel. Not to say that Seven Spellblades just used queer characters in an exploitive fetish way, because it generally never felt like it did that sort of lingering thing with its sex-fluid character, gay character, non-binary character, or even its succubus character that had seduction hormones and stole the seed of boys. And after all of that, I know that there was more to this show. It did the magical fantasy school in ways more interesting that the standard anime, obviously taking some bits from Harry Potter, and I would even argue in ways more progressive than Harry Potter did when it came out. It touched on aspects of discrimination, and activism in the face of others seeing you as naive. And on top of that I would say it looked pretty diverse, with my note of a main character with darker skin and otherwise characteristics quite foreign to Japanese characteristics, but with none of the common possibly problematic or stereotypical traits. There was also a pretty cool more obvious black character too, but I can't really recall much about her, but at least kind of cool that she was there. To wrap up some of my ramblings, I am giving the rating of Very good (8/10), there is a lot here that is pretty good, going beyond what I thought of first of just another anime fantasy school, or just giving in to be edgy. I just kind of think that there are missteps here that give me the sort of vibes that it was a little confused, but had the spirit. |
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